Pandora's box opened by chemist

You could almost understand if Annie Dookhan messed with drug tests because she was an addict, or sold the drugs to pay off crushing gambling debts.

But the former state chemist who “corrupted the integrity of the entire criminal justice system,” as Attorney General Martha Coakley said Friday, was only trying to be considered an effective worker.

She certainly was effective. Effectively, she turned the system on its head and created a scandal so far-reaching that officials will struggle with the fallout for years.

Although many reports have focused on the prospect of innocent people incarcerated because of Dookhan's altering of drug tests, she'll also be responsible for putting guilty drug dealers back on the streets. Already, at least 20 drug defendants have been released, or had their sentences suspended or bail reduced.

Those numbers are sure to grow, as will the cost to revisit thousands of cases handled by the now-infamous chemist.

On Friday, the 34-year-old Franklin resident stood impassively in Boston Municipal Court while a prosecutor explained how investigators finally realized something was amiss at the state drug lab in Jamaica Plain. Dressed in a gray Nike sweatshirt and jeans, dark hair pulled back in a pony tail, the baby-faced defendant hardly resembled the one-woman wrecking crew who admitted to police that she faked drug test results, mixed samples and forged signatures.

While she didn't speak at her arraignment, she told state police last month that she just wanted to get the work done.

“I screwed up big-time,” she said, according to the police report. “I messed up bad; it's my fault. I don't want the lab to get in trouble.”

The lab was shut down. Three officials resigned, including the state's public health commissioner. And the trouble is just beginning, as many question how Dookhan's supervisors overlooked her misdeeds for so long.

“There was that kind of chaos at the lab, and no one picked up on it?” asked Anthony Salerno, a local criminal defense lawyer. “The fact that it wasn't recognized suggests there are bigger problems than Annie.”

Dookhan was the most productive chemist at the lab, often testing more than 500 samples a month while her colleagues tested between 50 and 150. Co-workers expressed doubt about her shoddy work several years ago. At Friday's arraignment, Assistant Attorney General John Varner said Dookhan admitted to sprinkling real cocaine in with a non-drug substance. She also admitted that she'd grab 25 samples, test about five and list them all as positive. Dookhan tested more than 60,000 drug samples involving 34,000 defendants during nine years.

Michael Wilcox, also a criminal defense lawyer, said prosecutors will face huge challenges because even preserved drug samples may be contaminated. He also anticipated courts being swamped with motions for new trials from defendants in federal court, because prior convictions weigh heavily in sentencing.

“It's going to be a real rough ride for prosecutors,” Wilcox said. “I don't know how they can fix this.”

And consider the collateral damage. Convicts are kicked out of public housing and deported. They lose custody of their kids in probate courts.

Worcester County is lucky, because most of the drugs in local cases are tested at UMass Memorial Medical Center.

Still, defense lawyers are creative. If one lab is compromised, it opens the door for lawyers to cast aspersions on others. That, in turn, could prompt skittish and skeptical juries to second-guess state evidence and find guilty people innocent.

The woman responsible for this turmoil faces years in prison. For her sake, let's hope the system doesn't handle her case in the same cavalier manner in which she treated the public trust.